Odd Couple
by Emlyn
Summary: It's Lily's fantasy and James' nightmare: while doing errands for Dumbledore in Hogsmeade, the Head Boy and Girl are forced to share a hotel room for a week! Before the end, both will learn something about themselves and each other that will change their
1. The Ideal Vacation

**

The Ideal Christmas Vacation

**

As Lily shut the stagecoach door behind her, the cold air seemed to be sucked out of the small compartment with the wind. She shivered and sat down, peeling off her gloves and hat. Her long red hair tumbled down around her shoulders and she shook her head, a little frustrated, to get it out of her eyes, which were as green as the poinsetta flower leaves decorating the inside of the coach. God, it had been a long day. She gazed out the window at the dead, dry, snowless trees. She hated that -- Christmas was not long away and it hadn't snowed yet. She leaned back, and had closed her eyes for a split second when there was a slam on the window near her. Astonished, she turned to the window to see James pressing his lips against it outside, his breath steaming the glass. The next moment he was in the coach with her, squishing beside her on the seat.

"Hey, Evans! Excited as I am?"

"Yes, now that I remember _you're_ coming with me!" she returned with a huge, fake smile, then pushed him away from her. "Get off! Sit across from me if you _must_ ride in this coach."

"Aw, come on!" he laughed, obeying her and sitting on the bench across from her. "Why the long face? We're going to Hogsmeade, we haven't been there for two years during the school year, and it's _Christmas_time." That was true, Lily thought. Ever since Voldemort had begun to gain power Dumbledore had cancelled all Hogsmeade trips until further notice. While the rule was not a favourite among students, it was the kind of rule everyone obeyed without complaining, given the circumstances. Lily had a feeling, too, that most kids would do anything for Dumbledore if he asked. She and James, in fact, were going to Hogsmeade to stand in for Dumbledore in a few meetings.

"And my biggest Christmas wish," Lily muttered just loud enough for James to hear, "was to spend an entire week in a hotel with you and take notes at an education convention only to return to school to find that rumors are spreading that we slept together on our little business trip."

"Actually, I haven't started those yet," James said nonchalantly as he shifted through a bag of Bertie Botts. He offered her a dark brown bean, but Lily shook her head. "No? It's dirt, your favourite." She rolled his eyes and looked out the window as the carriage pulled off, determined not to speak to him again the rest of the trip.

But that didn't stop _him_ from speaking. "I can't believe you're not excited about this. Sure, we have to work, but not _all_ the time . . . do we?" When she didn't answer, he plunged on. "I sorta thought taking notes was your idea of fun anyway."

"Listen, James!" Lily said harshly, breaking her vow. _Damn it_. "Taking notes is _not_ my idea of fun, but I know I'll end up doing lots of it anyway since I don't expect _you_ to do any work, so here's the deal: You can either entertain yourself -- alone -- and leave _me_ alone, or you can bother me all you want and earn a complaint requesting you to leave Hogsmeade as soon as an owl can carry it to Dumbledore. Got it?"

He looked at her, wide-eyed, a bean half-way to his mouth, and Lily figured she had him cornered. What Lily didn't know was that James was noticing then that her cheeks and nose and lips were red with the cold and it made her even prettier than normal.

He shrugged and popped the bean in his mouth. "You leech the fun out of everything."

Lily felt her trademark temper rising, and she stared out at the green pastures rushing past, trying to quell it. There were a few minutes of silence, and then James murmured, barely audible, "Fun-leech."

Silently, Lily turned her glaring emerald eyes at him. He stared back, his face indignant. He reminded her of a little boy pouting because he didn't get any Sugar Quills in his stocking, and despite her better judgment, she laughed, breaking her angry tension unintentionally. James laughed, too, and looked out the window smiling, and for the rest of the trip was dutifully quiet as Lily napped. 


	2. Full House

**

Full House

**

"Swank," James remarked as they both climbed out of the coach in front of the facade of their hotel.

It hotel was located in a section of Hogsmeade that neither Lily or James had encountered during the previous school trips to Hogsmeade a couple years ago. Lily noticed that the witches and wizards shopping, lingering, or hurrying to important jobs or meetings all wore robes that were definitely not fitted in ten minutes at Madam Malkin's. She had a feeling that if a Hogwarts student had wandered in by mistake he would have been highly noticeable, and would have to rent a fancy cloak before going into any of the ritzy restaurants.

As Lily and James pushed their carts down the manicured cobblestone streets, Lily felt slightly intimidated; she had grown up in a money-conscious family and wasn't accustomed to such elaborate surroundings. James, however, seemed to feel at ease and knew where he was going. He led her down the wide street to the hotel they were booked at (which had a complicated Italian name Lily couldn't quite make out) and held the door open for her.

Once in the sparklingly clean and grand hotel, Lily was on her own to speak to the clerk at the desk, as James found a decorative fountain in a corner and approached it with the fascination of a small child. There was quite a line of people in front of the desk, and most of them had badges reading Academy-of-something-or-other from several different countries. They were most likely going to the same meetings she and James were scheduled for, Lily thought.

Finally she was at the front of the line and the man behind the desk grinned at her under his blond handle-bar mustache. His nametag read in delicate purple cursive _Sir Roderick_. She resisted cringing at his slightly slimy persona.

"Lily Evans and James Potter, please," she said politely. Sir Roderick's long skinny finger scanned his datebook for the names.

"Lily Evans . . . you're in room 1013." He pointed past her and Lily was surprised to see a row of colossal golden elevators lining the wall on the right. "Take the el from the end, and afterwards the first stairway to your left." His toothy smile surfaced again. "Call upon me at any hour of the day or night for anything you need."

She nodded, a little unsurely, suddenly wishing James was standing next to her.

"And James Potter?"

"Potter . . ." His finger moved down the list again. "Potter? We don't have a Potter booked, madam. We have you boarding with an Ellen Bones."

Lily stared at him. "Ellen Bones? No, Sir, um . . . Roderick. James Potter is accompanying me."

"I'm sorry, but we only have one room booked for the Hogwarts party. It was understood another female would be coming along."

Lily glanced behind her swiftly. James was dipping his finger in the fountain water, letting the goldfish see him, removing his fingers just before they reached him, and repeating the process, his eyes wide and smiling. She turned back to Sir Roderick.

"Is there nothing you could do? Could you get another room? I don't care if it's far from mine -- in fact, I'd prefer that it was --"

Sir Roderick's eyes flashed. "Apparently you've no idea how difficult it was to fit the first fifteen-hundred guests in. No, I can _not_ give you another room, there's simply no space."

"This hotel is magic, _make_ more space!" Lily exclaimed.

"That isn't possible. I could . . ." he murmured, his lips curling upward, "Arrange a special situation to board in the employees quarters --"

It was impossible to suppress a disgusted shiver then; she shook her head to hide it, smiled as warmly as she could, took the key, and left with a bright 'thank-you'. 


	3. Lily's Nightmare, James' Fantasy

**

Lily's Nightmare, James' Fantasy

**

Lily emanated emotion powerfully, more than anyone James had ever met. As she crossed the room to him now, her lips pursed, James rubbed his finger dry with his robes and braced himself.

"Get away from the fountain. Let's go," she said curtly, and passed him towards the horizontal els. James's heart sank. She wasn't yelling at him yet. That meant she was long past merely angry. He touched the water in a silent goodbye to the goldfish.

"James!" Lily exclaimed when he didn't follow her. "Act your age, not your -- shoe size!" She entered an elevator and James gazed after her. For a split second as she said that Lily's eyes had flickered down, and he _knew_ she had not originally planned to say "shoe" -- and while that was an extremely harsh (and untrue, James thought) insult, it was enough for him that Lily at least recognized for once that he had one.

The el doors started to close before James got there and Lily made no move to stop them. Maybe he'd get lost in the huge hotel and starve to death, she thought furiously and illogically. But James squeezed through the doors at the last minute and faced her cold fury calmly, his hazel eyes open to whatever she had to say as the elevator lurched gracefully to the left.

"Was Ellen Bones originally intended for this trip?"

James shuffled his feet, deciding how to answer, and then leaned against the metal wall, face downcast.

"Yeah."

"What did you do for her to make her switch places?"

_Damnit_. He hadn't really wanted her to find that out. He knew she'd be bitter enough all week as it was, and knowing that she _could_ have been here with her best friend would make her hell to hang around with. James half-considered acting confused; but he knew Lily wasn't stupid and all it would do was make her madder.

"I kissed her."

"You _kissed_ her!?" _Oh, if looks could kill_, James thought. Lily took a deep breath. _Here comes the hurricane_.

"Well, if your little scheme was to come here and bask in laziness for a week at away from school, you can pack up and leave now, because the notice the hotel got was that two females were coming from Hogwarts and they booked us only _one_ room and now that meetings start tomorrow, _all_ the other rooms are full or reserved, so now _you_ are sharing a room with me, and there is absolutely _no way_ you are _ever_ going to do _anything_ but go to these meetings, take notes, and write up the reports Dumbledore wants. You're not going to contact your little friends, you're not gonna even _touch_ your Invisibility Cloak, and the lights are going off every night at ten. Got it?"

The el had stopped; she flung around without waiting for an answer and left, heading towards a staircase. James opened his mouth, closed it, and hurried after her.

She was right. This trip was not going to be anything like he planned.

Hell, it was going to be _so_ much better.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Want more story? I've got more chapters uploaded at my website. You can find a link for that by looking at my profile, just click on my name up there somewhere.Check it out!! ^^ 


	4. Tea and Apologies

**

Tea and Apologies

**

Their hotel room was definitely comfortable for two guests -- maybe not two guests of no relation and different gender, under normal circumstances, of course. But it was beautiful and comfortable, with a high ceiling, a small golden chandelier of candles, hard polished oak furniture, a kitchenette, a spacy bathroom, and two queen-sized beds with blankets as soft as down. There was a lovely outside balcony through some French doors at the end of the room, framed by golden curtains. The first thing Lily did was take out her wand and conjure a barrier between the two beds, separating the room equally in half by a conjured curtain; as she did this, swiftly and muttering to herself, James decided to steer clear of her for a while. He made some tea in the kitchenette, and soon they were both sitting at the little countertop, sipping it.

After a few minutes of silence, James felt he had to say something. Lily was not calming down very easily, and he did feel badly about striking up her temper.

"I'm sorry," he said truthfully. To his surprise, Lily smiled a bit into her tea.

"It's all right. I mean, as long as Dumbledore knows your here . . ." She looked at him questioningly and James nodded. "It wasn't your fault," Lily continued.

James winced. "Actually . . ."

Lily raised her eyebrows; then -- "Oh. Yeah, I guess it was your fault, wasn't it."

He nodded grimly. Lily finished off her tea. "Who's the fun-leech now, huh?"

"I _am_ sorry, Evans. I'll be on my best -- Hel-_lo_, is that liquor?" He moved his chair back and crossed the room to a cabinet full of bottles.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Congratulations, you kept a promise for a tenth of a second."

"Damn, it's locked," James muttered. He took out his wand.

"_James_," Lily said warningly. He groaned and stuffed his wand back in his pocket.

"Anyway, Evans, you might just find I'm not a bad person to live with," James said, going over to the counter and plucking some grapes out of a decorative bowl.

"Yes, I'm sure we'll bond and leave here being bestest-best friends," Lily said mockingly. James raised his eyebrows, indicating that was not exactly what he'd meant, but Lily ignored him. "Now I am going to bed on my side of the curtain and you are going to be quiet on your side of the curtain. We get up at five o'clock."

"_Five?!_" James panicked. "Five o'clock!"

"Ellen Bones must be so happy back at the castle, knowing _you're_ the sucker who has to get up at the break of dawn."

James pulled the curtains closed between them. "Good night," he said bitterly. 


End file.
